Beasts By Joyce Carol Oates Published by Orion in hardback priced &#xA3;9.99. Available March 20th.

Gillian Brauer is an intense young junior at Catamount College in Massachusetts in the mid-Seventies. She and her girlfriends are mesmerised by their charismatic poetry tutor Andre Harrow, a man who scorns convention and urges his students to go deeper with their writing.

Back Story By Robert B Parker Published in hardback by John Murray, priced &#xA3;17.99. Available March 20th.

The 30th book in Robert B Parker's long-running Spenser series. When Spenser's surrogate son Paul Giocamin comes to see him with an actress friend whose mother was murdered in a bank robbery 28 years ago, the veteran detective can't help but get involved.

The Coffee Trader By David Liss. Published in paperback by Abacus, priced &#xA3;6.99. Out now.

Coffee has such an established place in daily life that it's hard to remember it was once considered an obscure fruit, prescribed only by pharmacists.

It's this period in time that provides the setting for Liss's fascinating novel, based in Amsterdam in 1659.